A Matter of Us
by Sightbent
Summary: What if Takuya was a part of the Digidestined? However, now it's the start of 02 and like the other older kids he's sitting on the sidelines, but for him there's something going on other than battles. An AU of 02 focusing on daily life and a secret.
1. Matter 1

**Author Notes:**

First, a few notes to give you the background before this story gets started.

_1. In this story Takuya was a member of Digidestined from the start. He was at the summer camp with all the others when they got pulled into the Digital World._

_2. He's a Digidestined, not a Legendary Warrior, so he has a partner instead of a spirit; and a Digivice instead of a D-tector. He's no different than the others._

_3. With Takuya added into the mix there's now eight original Digidestined and Kari became the ninth child._

_4. Takuya's the same age as Tai, Matt, and Sora._

_5. The background of events is that season 01 happened and it's the start of 02. The only differences are that Takuya was along for the whole thing, but the changes he made will only be addressed if needed. The events of 04 never happened._

_6. Tai was still the leader, giving Takuya the second-in-command status._

Second, the design of this story.

_1. The whole story is written from Takuya's point of view, so don't forget whose eyes you're seeing things through._

_2. For the most part this story will follow the plot of the second season of Adventure. There will only be small adjustments to allow the story to work._

_3. Davis, Yolei, Cody, Kari, and TK will still be the one's fighting the Digimon Emperor and traveling back and forth from both world; while Takuya will be offering help just like all of the other older kids._

_4. This story will focus on his daily life and interactions during the second season, so don't expect much in the way of digimon fights and visits to the Digital World. The days will kind of skip over what the second generation is doing that day._

Last couple of author notes.

_1. I've been wanting to write a daily life romance story that didn't revolve around constant danger, mystery, or digimon battles; and this is it._

_2. Like I said above the story will follow the plot of the second season, but instead focus on what was happening outside of trips to the Digital World. I'm sure there's people out there wondering what the older kids were doing while the second generation were fighting the forces of evil._

_3. I hope you enjoy the story!_

* * *

><p><strong>Matter 1<strong>

"_Fifteen years… Fifteen years I've been alive. And in about a few months it'll be sixteen, but that's not important right now damn it. In those fifteen years life I haven't made a mistake anywhere near as bad as the one I made three days ago…"_ I've spent the last hour of this morning berating myself with these thoughts. I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet and they've already started; and you want to know what the worst part of it is? Given the chance to do that decision over again, I'm pretty sure I'd make the same choice again… How could I have resisted accepting?

"Damn it…" I cursed one more time as I rolled out of bed and got to my feet, tossing my crimson sheets back onto the bed in a clumped mess.

On this day every year I would normally complain about having to start school again after what felt like such a short summer break, but today my mind was clouded by far more important things. Much more worrisome things which made it impossible to enjoy the last three days that I'd had left.

"You better hurry. Breakfast is starting to get cold," a slightly annoyed female voice complained from beyond my bedroom door as it walked by down the hall; having taken an extra few seconds to make sure I was up before continuing on.

"Yeah. Yeah," I yawned, ruffling my bed head hair around in the mirror until it was what I considered perfect, which was a waste of time considering it would just get out of place again when I pulled my shirt on over my head.

Releasing another tired yawn I stripped off my pajama bottoms, it was always too hot to wear the tops when I sleep, and exchanged them for the green school uniform hanging on the back of my door. It didn't take me that long to get dressed since I didn't put much effort into making sure it was all on straight. Mainly because I liked how it looked with the top two buttons left undone, the tie lose around my neck, one side of the white shirt left untucked, and the sleeves of the jacket unbuttoned. I really hated feeling like I was confined in my own clothes. I wonder if that means I'll never be able to wear a suit when I grow up.

With a final long look into the mirror hanging from the closet door, again mentally berating myself for my past decision, I headed out of my room. Rubbing the back of my head as I walked I followed the smell of food down the tan hallway and to the kitchen table where two plates of omelets and a steaming bowl of white rice in the center with a wooden spoon sticking out of the middle.

"You forgot the ketchup again," I remarked as I stepped in beside my place at the table.

Instantly, karma struck, along with a hand to the back of my head, but I was used to it by now. I might not actually be able to start my day without it nowadays.

"You're lucky that I've been cooking you breakfast since we were six. If I hadn't you'd have starved each morning since you never get up early enough for mom to cook for you. She also doesn't have the patience for your little remarks," she said to me as she walked to her seat, pulled out her chair, and sat down.

Her school uniform, exactly like mine except for the skirt, was tidy and nicely done up, just like the picture that came with clothing package. She had combed her orange hair smooth, twisting up at the ends into feathered wings, and a pair of light blue barrettes holding her bangs back. There are a lot of similarities between her looks and mine, but that's to be expected since we're twins; fraternal twins at that. I'm older than her by eleven minutes, a fact I like to bring up from time to time.

This girl sitting next to me who had cooked the breakfast we were enjoying is by eleven minutes my little sister, even though she acts likes she's the older one, Sora.

"I can't believe you actually put ketchup on your omelet," Sora commented as she cut a piece free from the whole and ate it.

"Tai does it too," I protested, instantly feeling guilty when I said his name.

"That's because you're both weird," she retorted, smiling slyly back at me as she swallowed the bite she had been chewing.

"Uh-huh," I sadly replied as I cut a big piece of mine and chewed it a few times before swallowing.

Across from me I could see her analyzing my face with interest. She had noticed something wrong with me a few days ago and the looks pretty much started right after that incident. "So anything been on your mind recently?" She asked the question I knew she would since she had been asking me it a few times a day since then.

"No… nothing…" I stuttered, still strangely caught off guard despite knowing it was coming.

"Really…?" She knew I was lying, but I doubt she knows the why. I actually doubt she could imagine the why.

"Just forget it, okay," I sighed, knowing that she would for a little while before coming back to the question sometime around lunch time when she had me trapped again.

"Fine…" she halfheartedly replied, already planning for the next time she would ask.

Ten minutes later I was putting the wet breakfast dishes in the drying rack next to the sink after Sora had left me with the task of clean up while she made some final preparations for school. Again this gave me some time to think about what I had done and what I would do about it. Unfortunately, I spent all of the time on what had already transpired and gave no real thought to the other.

"Ready to go?" My sister smiled at me as she waited for me to dry my hands before giving me my black and red backpack.

"Let's get it over with," I gave her a weak smile back as I took my pack from her and slung it over my shoulder.

With my burden taken from her she went and picked up her two bags. The first was a light tan messenger bag she had guilted me into spending three times the normal amount to buy her for our last birthday. If I remember correctly, her argument had something to do with making me breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last nine years of our lives. Actually, each year that number went up and so did my bill for her present. The other was a white duffle bag with green fringes and the high schools name printed on the side. It was the sports bag that had been given to her last year when she joined the tennis team and was loaded down with different equipment and her tennis uniform.

"Let me carry that," I said pointing towards the duffle bag, doing my best to act like a big brother, even if it was only by eleven minutes. Her response was to smile at me and pass the bag, glad not to have to carry the extra ten pounds with her on the walk to school.

We set out along the path we hadn't taken since school ended at the start of summer, passing through alleys and back roads that through trial and error we had discovered would shave five to seven minutes off of our commute. It only took us seven minutes to reach our first check point; we added on an extra two when we took a wrong turn by mistake. This was the stop I had been dreading since this morning, even more than the final stop at the school.

Dropping our bags onto the plastic bus bench we took a seat on the back and waited. Minutes passed and we continued to wait in silence. Sora was fighting the urge to ask me what was wrong again and I was trying to think about what had been preoccupying almost every waking moment of the last three days. God, I'm such a freaking idiot!

"Where is he?" Sora grumbled when a full six minutes had passed and we were still waiting.

"I'm sure he's on his way," I tried to defend his absence, but there was only so much I could do against my sister.

"Tai's always making us wait," she added with a huff as she sat back down beside me and slid her shoulder against mine in annoyance.

"It is the first day after all. He probably overslept. That's all," I commented, assuming that was the most likely event knowing him.

"He definitely couldn't have overslept. Kari would have made sure of that," Sora noted, glaring at me to stop defending my friend and side with her. "Maybe he decided to walk her to her first day of middle school instead of walking with us; but if that's the case and he didn't inform us. I'll kill him."

"…Good point sis… I'm sure he wouldn't do that," I uneasily replied, hoping that she hadn't noticed me stir nervously at a certain word she had said.

"Whatever. We'll wait another three minutes before heading out ourselves. We're not going to be late on our first day back," she stated, setting down a decision I couldn't challenge.

Unfortunately for Tai those three minutes passed and we were forced to leave. A certain one of use fuming at the ten minutes we had lost waiting. It took us another ten to reach the high school. A three story brown brick building built ten years ago when a population increase in the area had lead to overcrowding in the other five schools around us. It was the most modern of the six high schools scattered around the area, but that didn't mean much when technology improved sevenfold every couple of years. By now it was already outdated.

"So homeroom should be this way. The old chem. lab if I remember right," I noted as I committed the room number to memory. Luckily, since we were sibling and twins our similar last name had put us in the same classrooms and homerooms since we were in preschool.

"Yeah, that's right. I heard they had to close it down after Mr. Parks little crisis last year though. Something about it being contaminated and unfit for chemical storage anymore," Sora recalled, tapping the side of her chin with her finger as she thought about the incident.

"I remember that, you could hear it from all the way on the other side of the school," I laughed before turning to a more worried tone. "Wait! Unsafe for chemical storage, but perfectly fine for students?"

"That sounded really strange to me too, but I'm sure they wouldn't expose us to dangerous things like that if it wasn't safe," she rejoined as we rounded the bend in the hallway and the green doorframe of the room in question came into view.

"What are you talking about? I know you've seen the food they serve in the school cafeteria," I joked back taking a seat in the back of the room, hanging my backpack over the chair and setting Sora's duffle bag down on the desk next to mine. In a way telling her where she was going to be sitting, but it wasn't like I had to. We had sat together in homeroom ever since we had homeroom. Even after I became good friends with Tai we still made sure to sit together. Being beside each other all of the time might have been a natural instinct we got from our bond as twins.

"And that's why I make us Bento boxes for lunch every day," she remarked, patting her bag where one of the handmade lunch boxes was stored. The other one rested in my own bag, tempting me to eat it.

"That is definitely a plus, especially since you're cooking has gotten better over the years. I can still remember, and often still taste, that time you mixed up a teaspoon of salt with a tablespoon of salt," I laughed, prodding her in the shoulder as I did so.

"I was nine then. And I just mixed it up once," my sister defended her past mistake with an agitated glare.

"You only say JUST because I took the first bite and you refused to eat after that. I couldn't taste anything but salt for days. Do you have any idea how much that ruined the pizza and cake at Tai's birthday party?" I shot back, enjoying the distraction from my thoughts of three days ago and the fact that school was ten minutes away from starting up again. Officially ending what I considered summer.

"It was kind of funny when you tried pouring sugar on your slice to counteract the salt taste," Sora laughed at me with a big smile, obviously having much fonder memories of the event than me. "How did it taste by the way?"

"What do you think it tasted like? Pizza covered with sugar and still tasting of salt," I argued back, finding it impossible to keep a laugh down.

"Aww, poor big brother," Sora giggled, covering her mouth with her hand to make sure her voice didn't get too loud.

"Thanks for the concern…" I sighed, trying to push the memory to the back of my mind and hope that the imaginary taste of salt in mouth would go away with time.

When our little talk was over we each set about doing what we wanted to do with the time before class started. Sora went about going through her sports bag, double checking her equipment for tryouts after school today. She was the top of the first years last year so she didn't have to worry about a spot on the second year squad, but it also meant that she had to help with the freshman tryouts. Me, I planned to go out for the soccer team with Tai, but right now I was trying to figure out who was in our homeroom.

I didn't see any faces that jumped out at me as interesting or familiar, which made me wonder if we were alone this year. However, only half of the class was here at the moment so I couldn't be sure.

Of those that were present already there were three girls with sleek black hair in the corner of the room, giggling about something and looking towards the back of the room every so often. When they looked towards me I heard Sora let out an annoyed grunt and roll her eyes. There was another girl with brown hair reading over a book with a boy in black frame glasses up front. Two boys with short cut hair were looking over their schedules, comparing classes to see if they would be together; every so often shooting looks to the back at a target that made me angry. I had to promise myself there that I'd keep them away from my sister, but she would probably chase them off herself without any interference from me.

"And here I was worried that I'd be by myself," a familiar voice spoke up from my side closer to the entrance to the classroom.

Leaning back in my chair and cocking my head to the side I spotted a guy my age with semi saggy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was giving the two of us siblings a cool smile as he walked over and set his blue bag down on the desk in front of Sora's before sitting on the back of the chair to face us.

"Hey Matt," we happily greeted him in a perfect unison. "We were starting to think the same thing," we again responded in stereo.

"Wow, you twos twin powers at work again," Matt laughed at our word symmetry. "If that's the case did Tai get assigned a different homeroom?"

"Don't care," Sora growled, making me stifle a laugh so as not to invite her wrath as well.

Seeing the confused look on Matt's face in response to Sora's reaction I felt like I had to explain. "We waited for him at the stop we agreed on last night, but he never showed."

"And we ended up waiting ten minutes for nothing," Sora interjected before becoming begrudgingly quiet again. This brought a smile to my and Matt faces, but it wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"So we don't actually know where he's assigned. Do you know anything about where Izzy is?" I asked, wondering why we hadn't seen the computer genius this morning either.

"Nope, haven't seem either one of them today," Matt answered back. "But it's not like Izzy will be with us in homeroom considering he's in the advanced placement side of the school program."

"Yeah, it'll be just like last year with him being in all of those advanced class and us only seeing him during lunch and breaks," Sora added.

"Well, just in case we'll save Tai a seat with us," I stated while I tossed my backpack into the seat in front of mine to reserve it from any new arrivals.

"I wonder if he's skipping today?" Matt inquired aloud of us, but keeping his voice low enough that no one around us would hear and start some rumors.

"If he is, I'll kill him," Sora growled, shaking her fist at me; warning me against any similar actions.

Eventually, the time for school to start came without Tai ever showing up and we settled into the start of a new school year, unaware of the fact that Tai had found a way back to the Digital World and had found himself in some serious trouble. The three of us had no idea about the rise of the Digimon Emperor or that three new Digidestined were about to be chosen to fight a new enemy. All I knew at the time was that I had done something stupid that would mentally overshadow the coming battles.

"Tai never showed…" Matt noted when we met at the entrance to the school like we agreed to in homeroom. We discovered that Tai was in fact in our homeroom with us when the teacher called attendance and unfortunately for him, Sora wouldn't let me call out a reply on his behalf. She said something about him getting what he deserved for ditching.

"It doesn't appear that way," I replied I as pushed up off of the lockers with a roll of my back and began to walk out the double doors with my sister and friend.

"This is strange… Tai and Takuya have skipped class before…" My sister commented as she shot me an angry glare at the fact, "…but I don't think either one of them is stupid enough to do it on the first day."

"Thanks sis," I awkwardly laughed, glad that she had at least that much faith in me. "But I really wonder what happened to him. Maybe we should check on him?"

"He could be sick or something?" Matt remarked, "It could happen, even if fools aren't supposed to get sick."

"We should call Kari and ask her if she knows what happened to him," Sora suggested, looking in my direction.

"Why me?" I yelped, feeling very nervous all of a sudden.

"Because I have tennis tryouts now and you're better friends with Kari than Matt is," Sora looked at me unsurely, pondering my strange behavior.

"Right…" I laughed in embarrassment while backing away from the two; the whole time telling myself that I had to be more careful. "I'll get right on it."

I walked away from the two as I took out my cell phone and scrolled through the address book until I found Kari's number; and there my finger lingered, unable to push the button. This whole thing was stupid. I was acting stupid. I had talked to her just the night before so why was I having a problem now. Damn it, this was getting bad. I was seconds, or let's face it minutes, from hitting the send button when three beeps carried across the air.

The tones hadn't come from our cells or old digivices safely tucked away in our backpacks or pants pockets, but from the largest pieces of technology we carried with us, our D-Terminals. The beeps meant we had just received a message and considering the timing it must have been someone sending a TO ALL message. From out of our packs we each produced our devices, popped the lids open, and began reading the message.

FROM: TAI

SOMETHINGS HAPPENED. MEET AT THE PARK AT 7:00 TO DISCUSS IT.

It was a short and lacking in detail message from Tai, not an uncommon occurrence for him. My cell phones inbox is filled with text that no one but me could make out any details from thanks to Tai. However, it wasn't the call to a meeting or lack of detail in the message that made our eyes go wide and stare at each other in disbelief. It was the last sentence of the message that did that.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE DIGITAL WORLD.

Even though it was difficult we managed to go about our afternoon like normal. Sora went to her tennis tryouts, but not before making me help the team pullout the equipment and put the nets up. Normally, I wouldn't have minded being surrounded by some of the schools cutest and most athletic girls in short tennis skirts, but today I didn't pay them any mind. I was already somewhere else. Matt went to practice with his band, but I doubted he'd get much done with his thoughts somewhere else as well.

This left me to walk home on my own. The walk gave me time to think and when I got home I did some more while I lay on the couch. The television on in the background for some noise, but secretly I hoped it would distract me; unfortunately, it wasn't working. Sometime around five I drifted off to sleep, only to be awoken at six-ten by the ringing of my cell. Still in my groggy hazy from just waking up I answered without recognizing the ringtone or number.

"Hello," I yawned a greeting into the mouth piece as I looked to the clock on the wall, smiling when I saw that I hadn't let seven slip by while I slept.

My hazy state instantly vanished when the person on the other end of the line began to speak. I forced my brain to start so that I could listen to them carefully. For a few minutes I listen, unable to speak, before they finished and I parroted back a summary.

"At the garden, across from the park where we're supposed to meet, at six-thirty. I understand," with that I hit the end button and fell back into the couch in renew frustration and self-loathing. "Damn it…"

Looking at the clock I saw that I only had fifteen minutes to get to the garden and it was normally a twelve minute walk, so I didn't have time to change out of my uniform if I didn't want to have to run. In this heat that wouldn't have been pleasant. Choosing to stay in my school clothes I put my important things back into the pockets of my pants and headed out the door; locking it behind me.

Sora's tennis session was going to be over by six, so after she helped put away the equipment, got showered, redressed, and packed to go it would be close to seven. This fact had lead to us agreeing to just meet at the park at seven when everything was to begin; meaning I didn't have to worry about walking with her.

As I had predicted I arrived at the park at six-twenty-seven and walked past it to the garden across the street. The twenty-by-twenty area of garden had been built between four old buildings and blocked off by a gate. To most passersby it looked like it was locked off and private, but anyone could go in if they wanted to. It appeared that someone had removed the lock on the side gate a long time ago, welcoming in visitors to enjoy the perfectly pruned cherry blossoms and blooming flowers. It was a little oasis in the middle of business and apartments. But the feature it was being used for now was the fact that thanks to the trees and ivy growing thick on the six foot fence, it was impossible to see inside from the outside.

I stopped just outside the gate and tried to gather myself. I told myself I was alright and took a deep breath before pushing the gate open. In the center of the garden, sitting on a stone bench overlooking a small Koi pond was a single occupant. She was small in stature with developing curves and soft brown hair. She wore a white and pink shirt, long fingerless pink gloves that ran up to her elbows, and a pair of yellow shorts. Her back was to me, but I knew who she was. She was the caller, the reason why I was here, and the cause of my bad decision.

This girl is Hikari Kamiya, or as her friends and I call her, Kari. She's a fellow Digidestined from when we fought the Myotismon, the Dark Masters, and Apocalymon. As well as being the chosen child of light. And currently the worst of it, Tai's twelve-year-old little sister. God, I'm scum…

"Kari…" I called out to her gently as I walked up to her spot, making her jump slightly in surprise. However, I couldn't be sure if she had heard me since she didn't turn around.

"Kari…" I called out to her again as I continued to get closer. And again she didn't turn around.

After a few more times without a response I started to get worried and stepped right up behind her. I leaned over her right shoulder and prepared to say her name again, right into her ear; but before I could a flurry of soft brown hair whipped past my face and something soft and warm pressed itself up against my lips. I was stunned by the sensation of Kari's kiss enveloping my lips as she tried to perform the act as best as she could. I had fallen into this trap so easily and even worse I was enjoying it enough to begin returning the sentiment; sliding my hand behind her head and thinking about using a little tongue.

"_God, what is wrong with me!"_ I berated myself, yet I didn't separate my lips from hers. Instead I sat down on the bench and wrapped by other hand around her waist, pulling her against me. It was apparently something she approved of since her kiss became more intense whenever I squeezed her.

"_I'm the worst…"_ I continued to harp on myself; and those words were true. If anyone needed proof all they had to do was consider this wasn't in fact our first kiss.

Three days ago Kari had called me to this place, claiming that she needed to talk to me about something. That something turned out to be her need to confess her feelings to me. Right there, in the spot we were kissing in at the moment, she told me she loved me and had done so for a long time. Every instinct in my body and mind told me to refuse her feelings and comfort her, always promising to be her friend. Because come on, I'm like a second older brother to her and I thought of her as a little sister… didn't I? Granted she has a lot of qualities I look for in a girl… all of them actually. She would actually be my ideal girlfriend if she were my age, or at least a year within. At some point had we stopped thinking of each other in a family kind of way and begun walking down different paths? Was either one of us capable of making this idea work?

Despite damn stupid thoughts like these I still planned to responsibly reject her and I think she saw me struggling to do it, so she said the words that would get me. She opened her little mouth and let her sweet voice ask me to answer her honestly. She said she could accept whatever answer I gave her as long as it was the truth. Those words combined with her pure eyes searching gazing into mine set a change in my choice. That change made me open my damn stupid mouth and do what I did. I accepted the feelings of love from my best friend's twelve-year-old sister and gave her my own. My mind was blank when as she asked for a kiss on the lips and again I agreed. Her technique was sloppy and she was so embarrassed by the act that she had to shy away many times before we finally got it done.

It wasn't until I had walked Kari home, hand-in-hand, and was left alone with my thoughts that the true impact of what I had done settled in. I was now dating a girl almost four years younger than myself, not much of an age difference between adults in a relationship, but miles apart to kids. Hell, Kari hadn't even started going through puberty yet… at least I don't think she has…

The more I thought about it, the worse it got, until I ended up wandering around the city until dawn, completely obvious to my mother and sister calling my cell in a panic all night long. Despite the pleasant notion of Kari drifting around in the back of my mind it still turned into one of the worst nights of my life; and when I woke up in my bed at four after noon I almost hoped it had been a dream. However, when I felt my heart sink at the idea of no longer having Kari, I knew this wasn't a situation I'd be able to get out of.

After a full minute Kari separated her lips from mine and looked away shyly, placing her finger tips over her lips as she tried to catch her breath. "Was that better than the last time?" She asked, looking at me with a deep blush forming in her cheeks under her big crimson eyes.

I hesitated to answer, my mind still lost in the recalled events from three days ago, but eventually I found something to say. "Ah, yeah…" I spoke absentmindedly, trying not to think about the fact that she had improved somewhat since the first time.

This had only been the third time we had kissed. The first had been after her confession and my acceptance; and the second had been the night before school started today. She claimed it had been for luck.

"I'm glad," her eyes beamed up at me proudly while a light blush ran through her skin. "I guess what they say is true, practice makes perfect," she added, making me blush as well. This was a side of Kari I wasn't used to and I wondered if anyone else but me knew it existed.

"They do say that," I repeated back, letting my fingers crawl across her stomach and to her hip where I tilted her forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Deciding it was best to stop any further romantic entanglement I turned the discussion towards another topic, the reason for our meeting in the park in twenty minutes. "So what happened today that we need to have an urgent get together? What exactly does it have to do with the Digital World?"

"So it's on to business now… You don't want anything else from me but the news…" Kari playfully sighed. I only say playfully because her tone sounded truly depressed, but I could see her trying to catch a glimpse of my reaction. Trying to gauge how her feeling, pretending was more like it, sad made me feel and act.

Deciding it was best to play her game, since changing the subject when she was trying to act like a girlfriend was kind of a jerk thing to do, I let my smile fade and drooped my eyes slightly while apologizing. "I'm sorry. You're right. This is time for us to be together and I shouldn't ruin it with something we're going to talk about in a little bit anyways," I pulled her into a hug as I said it. She reciprocated by kissing the lower part of my cheek and nuzzling up to my shoulder.

Ten minutes passed while we enjoyed the time alone in the garden as the sun finally set and the street lights flickered to life. It was six-fifty by then and we decided to head to the park early, hoping that we would be the first to arrive. That way no one would question how we had run into each other since there was no point of intersection between our two apartments and the park. I doubted anyone would put the pieces together if we did, but this new relationship was making me paranoid.

Luckily our prediction came out to be true and the park was empty. I released a tired yawn as I took a seat on one of the benches and leaned back, watching as the stars started to come out. Beside me Kari took a seat as well, giving a comfortable sigh as she did. Out of the corner of my eye I watched her petite hand reach out for mine resting at my side. She inched closer slowly, tempting me to hurry the process, but watching her was entertaining enough for me.

She was only an inch away from my hand when a voice called out to the two of us, making her jump and forcing me to stifle a laugh at her surprised reaction.

"Hey, you two," the warm voice of my sister called over to us as she walked from the entrance to our bench.

"Hey, sis," I greeted her before I began looking her up and down.

"You two got here early," Sora smiled down at us, giving my examination of her a weird look as it went on. "I thought you would have come with your brother, Kari. Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened. I just felt like going for a walk beforehand and ended up getting here a little bit ago," Kari answered my sister, leaving out the part about having meet with me or anything that might have suggested to her that we'd been anywhere but the park.

"She also probably felt like being on time for a change, which wouldn't have happened if she waited for Tai," I added with a laugh, getting a giggle out of Sora and Kari.

"After he left us hanging this morning don't even get me started on Tai," my sister groaned. She was a kind and forgiving person, but it did take her some time to let things go and get to the forgiving part. Through repetitive lessons I figured out a timetable of how long see needed to be angry over an incident before she'd be merciful again. I figured Tai had about half a day of angry looks coming his way tomorrow with tonight added on as a bonus.

"Well, there's a reason why he didn't make it to school today," Kari spoke up in defense of her brother; like any good little sister should do.

"There better be," Sora commented, feeling that if Kari said so than it was probably true. "Okay, I can't take it anymore. Takuya, you do remember that I'm your sister, right? So you need to stop checking me out," she suddenly exploded when I leaned to the side and had begun looking her legs over.

"I don't like them…" I noted, pretending that I hadn't heard her.

"Don't like what?" Sora inquired of me. Her tone telling me that she was already becoming agitated.

"Your legs," I plainly answered back as I continued to scrutinize them.

"What is wrong with my legs you jerk!" she barked at me. I had obviously hit one of my sister's sensitive spots, but that area might have been the case with most women.

"There are no bruises on them," I replied as I poked her right shin.

"Bruises?" She parroted back with a look of confusion.

"Yeah, we you used to play soccer with me your legs used to be covered in bruises by the end of tryouts and practice. But now, they're all smooth and girly," I sighed, poking her thigh this time.

"Of course they're girly, idiot," she roared back at me, knocking my hand away. "I might be your sister but don't you dare forget I'm a girl," she added as she leaned in and poked me square in the chest a few times.

"I just don't see it," I teased back, making her poke even harder.

"Do you see it now? Do you see it now?" She laughed as she continued to poke, finding every weak spot in my defense like only a sibling could.

By five minutes past seven the entire gang was gathered in the park. We all listened as Tai explained how he had found his way back into the Digital World, an announcement that set our hopes ablaze at the idea of being able to return after four years of separation; but that prospect would have to wait. He then moved onto what had happened after he had discovered an egg-like object with the crest of courage on it. About how he had been unable to lift it and when he tried three lights had burst out from it. How the lights had come out of the computer and homed in on three children, Davis, Yolei, and Cody, giving them Digivices; new models at that. New models for new Digidestined it seemed. After that the discussion turned to the Digimon Emperor; and his ability to stop normal evolution and the new armor evolution of the new Digidestined that could get around it.

The talk carried on for almost two hours and by the time nine o'clock rolled around Sora and I were back at the apartment. We ate a late dinner that mom had prepared and left wrapped in tinfoil in the fridge. While we ate we talked about what we had just heard. Discussed plans to visit the Digital World and track down our partners; and to top all of she asked me for the third time today it there was something I wanted to talk about, for example, my strange behavior. I thanked her for her concern but brushed her off again. By ten we were both showered and dressed for bed which left us time to talk a little more.

"I didn't really expect our first day back to be this exciting," Sora remarked as she sat down at my desk, resting her glass of water on one of my old sport magazines I'd been too lazy to throw away.

"A lot did happen today, albeit not to us," I commented with a laugh as I stared up at my dimly lit ceiling of my room from the flat of my back on the bed.

"Good point, that's why we should hurry up," she smiled, easily guiding the conversation towards what she wanted.

"You want to go to the Digital World tomorrow don't you?" I questioned, just as easily reading her intent. "It's strange to see you so impatient."

"Of course, don't you?" She retorted, abandoning her plan to lead me into making the decision she wanted.

"Yes, but I can't believe I'm saying this, but tomorrow's no good for me," I sighed, aggravated by the realization that was going to keep me in the human world all day tomorrow.

"Why? What's wrong?" She looked at me in surprise. She knew that I had left the meeting in the park wanting to head straight to the Digital World, despite it being night. And I would have done it to if Sora hadn't threatened me if I did.

"The tryouts for the karate team are tomorrow after school and unlike you, if I don't show then I don't get a spot on the team," I answered in misery.

"We have a karate team this year?" She questioned back.

"Yeah, it surprised me too. Apparently, the student council last year thought it was a popular enough idea to set one up to take affect this year, so now we have a team," I summed up the story I had heard from my physical education teacher during gym class.

"Does that mean you'll be aiming for the karate and soccer team this year?" She inquired, looking me over with a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, what would Tai do without his vice-captain," I laughed, my gaze turning to the picture of last year's soccer squad hanging on the wall. It was of Tai and me, our arms over each other's shoulders as we stood in the middle of the team holding up the division trophy our team had won.

"Well, either way, don't let your grades slip or I help mom make you drop one," Sora slyly smiled at me. It was a look that told me I should take it as a joke unless my grades actually started to slip; and in this household C's were counted as slipping. "And I'll miss you tomorrow."

"Wait! You still plan to go without me," I gasped, sitting up and looking at her in disbelief.

"Yeah, just because you can't go doesn't mean I can't," she smiled back, not giving in the slightest to my shocked look.

"That's messed up sis," I complained.

"Anyways, as the only other girl Digidestined in Japan I should go with that girl Yolei when she goes to the Digital World for the first time," she added with a compassionate look which I knew was directed towards the new girl.

"Always the big sister, huh?" I laughed as I fell back into the bed, picked up the old soccer ball pillow, and began tossing it up and down to myself.

"To everyone but you by eleven minutes," she rejoined, picked up her glass of water and headed out of my room with a final, "Good night, bro."

"Good night, sis," I returned her words, stopping myself from tossing the pillow up and down long enough to listen to her put her cup in the dishwasher, walk back down the hall, and close her room door. Once the house was quite again I began playing with the ball again, but it couldn't help me. My mind quickly returned to the thoughts I had been trying to block out; and when they returned, I knew I wasn't going to get a good night's sleep.

"_Fifteen years… Damn, I suck…"_

* * *

><p>To be continued…<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Poll Notice!<strong>

Okay, not that you've read the story help me decide something about the story. Since Takuya's a Digidestined in this he needs to have a partner digimon, but I can't choose between a few choices; so I'm putting up a poll on my profile page to decide. It'll be up for a few chapters, so I won't be ending it until I get to the chapter where I need to introduce his partner. The list below contains all forms Takuya's possible partner would move through starting from In-train and moving up to Mega. Pick the set you like the most and vote, if you don't know what each form is check them out online to help you make your decision. The list below will also appear in the poll.

DemiMeramon - Candlemon - FlaWizardmon - Mistymon - Dynasmon

Hopmon - Monodramon - Strikedramon - Cyberdramon - Justimon

Koromon - Betamon - Airdramon - MegaSeadramon - GigaSeadramon

Kyaromon - Elecmon - Centarumon - Andromon - HiAndromon


	2. Matter 2

**Matter 2**

Today I awoke on the couch in a half sitting position and according to the clock on the DVD player it was six-o-three in the morning. Last night I ended up tossing and turning for an hour before deciding to watch some television to distract me long enough to fall asleep. It had eventually worked around midnight when a boring documentary had put me to sleep.

"About six hours," I yawned, reflecting on the amount of sleep I believed I had gotten. "Maybe I'll just get a little more…"

Before I could finish my thought something cold was pressed against the side of my neck, making me jump away from it. Looking up I found Sora dressed in her yellow track suit and holding two water bottles, one which she had placed against my neck.

"Don't even think about it," she glared at me. "It's time for our morning run."

"Right…" I sighed, knowing it wouldn't do any good to protest; either way I was going to end up going.

Every morning since our first trip to the Digital World we had gone running for half an hour. It was a good practice to get into and really helped with our performance in our different clubs and activities. We only skipped on busy or rainy days. The first day of school counted as a busy day so we took a break, but today it was back to our normal routine.

"Get dressed," she ordered, pointing down the hall to my room.

"Fine…" I groaned as I pushed myself up from the couch and headed to my room to change.

"And don't you dare go back to sleep," she added, making me twitch; giving away the fact that she had caught onto my plan.

A minute later I returned to the living room dressed in my black exercise shirt and red shorts. Sora tossed me my water bottle, which she had filled for me, and we headed out. We followed our normal route through the neighborhood, looped through the small forest of a local park, and back towards the apartment. By the time we got back it was six-forty and we were drenched in sweat.

Sora was the first to hit the shower since she needed more time to get ready and make breakfast, so that left me to cool down in the living room. Ten minutes later she emerged from the bathroom and told me I could go in. Thanks to me becoming lost in the thoughts of what had happened four days ago now, plus what we had found out yesterday, I ended up taking nearly fifteen minutes in the shower compared to my normal five.

When I came back out I could smell breakfast cooking and hear Sora getting her stuff sorted out on the kitchen table. I hurried to my room and changed into my school uniform before making my way to the kitchen. I tossed my backpack onto the sofa and prepared to ask my sister what was for breakfast, but through the opening in the kitchen I saw someone else standing before the stove.

"Morning mom," I greeted her politely.

"Good morning, Takuya," she greeted me back with a smile as she stirred something on the stovetop, sending delicious sounding sizzles and crackles into the air.

"I thought you'd be gone by now," I inquired as I sat at the table.

"Nope, there isn't a flower delivery today, so I don't have to be there until opening time," my mother answered with a smile. "So I thought I'd give your sister a break today and do the cooking."

"I'll also be nice to eat together considering it's been a while since we have," Sora added, slipping her notebook into her messenger bag before closing the flap and setting it on the floor next to her.

"Sorry, things have been pretty busy at the shop lately, but hopefully they'll calm down for a while," my mother tiredly smiled at us as she scrapped three servings of whatever was in the frying pan onto plates and passed my sister and I's food through the kitchen archway.

I was glad it was the three of us eating breakfast together since it meant two things. First, it had been a while since we had enjoyed a family meal besides from dinner. And second, it meant that Sora would be too distracted by talking with mom to ask me if I wanted to talk about what was bothering me.

"You two can leave the dishes to me, so get going," mother told us as she stacked our dirty plates and headed for the kitchen.

The task of cleanup taken care of Sora and I gathered our stuff and headed out the door. It only took us six minutes to reach the spot where we meant to meet Tai the other day. Today, he was waiting for us, sprawled out on the bus bench and staring off into the sky. It seemed that my sisters glaring warning last night about not making us wait again was enough to get him motivated this morning.

"Hey," I greeted him with a yawn as I leaned over the back of the bench.

"Hey," Tai yawned back before beginning to get up.

"Neither one of you look like you got much sleep last night," Sora sighed as she shook her head in disappointment.

"Of course not, I was too excited to sleep," Tai replied, apparently believing that his claim would justify his bad habit. "We are heading back to the Digital World today after all. Well, it'll be my second time today, but both of your firsts in four years."

In response to his announcement all I could do was let out a depressed sigh. Hearing my sigh of displeasure Sora took it upon herself to explain my mood to Tai. "Unfortunately, Takuya's going to be sitting this one out since he's going out for the karate team after school today. If he doesn't show, he doesn't get a spot."

"That sucks," Tai gave me a sympathetic laugh before a concerned look spread across his face. "Wait! You're still going to join the soccer team this year, right? I mean you can do both? I can't lose both Sora and you from the team."

"I can definitely do both, so don't worry. I'm not going to abandon you like certain other people," I remarked and quickly received a blow to my shoulder from my sister.

"I didn't abandon anyone. I just grew up," she coyly smiled at us she began to continue the walk to school.

"Hey, are you insulting soccer or us," Tai growled, but my sister never gave an answer besides from a victorious laugh.

It only took us a few more minutes to reach the school and settle into another day of lessons. Hours later the final bell rang and we filed out into the school entrance.

"Another day down…" I sighed as I watched the others get ready to leave.

"Yeah, so when's your tryout," Matt turned to me and asked as he slid a text book from his locker into his bag.

"About an hour from now. Why? Do you want to come and cheer me on?" I responded with a mocking smile.

"No matter how entertaining seeing you get kicked around might be, I've got another band meeting to get to," he answered back. "Anyways, isn't that what you have a sister and Tai for?"

* * *

><p>"You'd think," I rejoined as I glared at the two who were avoiding my gaze while hurrying to get packed and ready to leave. "They're heading to the Digital World without me today and are leaving me to tryout all alone."<p>

"Sucks to be you," Matt laughed as he closed his locker and headed out. "Then good luck and see you tomorrow," he added as he walked out the double door and went off to his meeting.

"So I guess you two are off too," I sighed as they closed their lockers and zipped up their bags.

"Sorry, bro, but it's not like you need us here. I'm pretty sure once they see what you can do they'll make you the team captain," my sister tried to placate me with such a big compliment.

"Yeah, you'll be fine," Tai added with his best apologetic smile. "You can already probably kick my ass."

"First, I know I'll be fine. Second, I've already proven I can kick your ass. I site the first day we meet as proof. And third, the tryouts have nothing to do with my bad mood. My bad mood is being caused by the two people closest to me going off to the Digital World without me," I growled back.

"Whoa, we were six then, so that doesn't count," Tai barked back.

"I completely forgot about that," Sora chimed in with a coy smile. "You two got in a big argument about who would be the captain of our soccer team and it ended with you to getting into a fight. And strangely enough, the next day the two of you were best friends."

"I don't know why I started to like him, but him and Matt becoming good friends suggests that he just likes people he fights with. Which is really weird," I laughed, giving Tai a suspect look.

"Hey," he mumbled back as he searched for a retort.

"Okay, we're off," Sora announced, returning to avoiding eye contact with me.

"Fine… go…" I sighed as I watched to two head out the door on their way to the middle school while I had another hour to wait before tryouts started. I spent the time flexing and warming up my body so that I could be sure of doing my best and not hurting myself.

When it got close to the start time I made my way from the sports field to the gym, getting a few good wishes good luck from random kids I knew, but never really took the time to learn their names. Thinking about it I wondered how they even knew about what I was doing today and where I was going. It was strange that random people just knew what I was doing.

Before I stepped into the gym a ping emanated from my D-Power and I stopped to check whatever message had been sent to me. Opening it I found the message:

FROM: KARI

TO: TAKUYA

GOOD LUCK. KICK BUTT. I KNOW YOU CAN.

XOXOXO

LOVE,

YOUR GIRL

The text made me smile and encouraged me forward. I wrote up and sent out a quick thanks in reply before selecting the delete command and erasing the message she had sent me. I couldn't run the risk that someone would see it by accident.

The gym was a large area, covering about the same area as the schools soccer field and covered in polished light brown wooden planks. A full length basketball court ran down the middle while along the walls four extra nets had been put up for pick-up games. You couldn't exactly have a whole gym class playing a single game at one. Today the nets and board and been hoisted up and out of the way while large dark blue gym mats had been laid out in a large square.

"Ah, Takuya, good to see you showed up. Come here a second," an upbeat voice called out to me from the far corner of the room by the mats. Standing at the edge of the sparring mat stood a five and a half foot woman with long black hair tied up in a ponytail wearing a brown track suit, a whistle around her neck, and waving to me from over the clipboard in his hands.

It was Mrs. Keller, our soccer team's assistant coach and apparently the head coach of the Karate team now; unless I was misreading her presence there.

"Sure, Mrs. Keller," I responded as I hurried over to her. Before saying her name I had to remind myself that it had changed after she had gotten married, which in turn got me thinking about how marriage had led her to accidently comment about wanting to have a baby during our last meet at the end of summer. It was a strange thing to come up, so I quickly brushed it off. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to say that considering how skilled I know you are today's just more of a formality for you. Actually, I suspect that won't have enough people showing up to be turning them away. According to the sign up sheet we'll have just enough to make up a team. We'll probably just use today to see what everyone's capable of and figure out what we have to work with," Mrs. Keller admitted to me with a sigh. It seem that she was well aware that the other athletic clubs, like, soccer, track, and basketball, had the greatest pull; which seemed to bother her, either because this was the first team she was the head coach of, or because she really liked karate.

"We?" I picked up on her word usage. Considering I didn't see an assistant coach around I couldn't figure out who the, we, she was talking about was.

"Yeah, you and me. I was think that since I already know that you're very good at the fighting aspect and have experience being a team leader from your time as assistant captain of the soccer team, I would make you team captain and my assistant coach; especially since there's no money in the budget for one," Mrs. Keller explained with such praise that I couldn't help but be excited by the prospect.

"Sure, anything I can do to help," I gave her a big smile as the sign of my acceptance while ignoring the last comment.

Over the next three hours Mrs. Keller introduced herself, the club structure, and held the tryouts which were really just exhibition matches since we had just enough people to fill the starter and reserve team spots. Strangely, the tryouts brought in more girls than I expected, both as spectators and participants. While some of the guys might have laughed at the idea of getting beat by a girl, my time with my sister and practice matches with Mrs. Keller after soccer last year, I wasn't going to doubt any of their abilities. At the end of the auditions Mrs. Keller introduced me as the team captain and her assistant coach; and the others accepted it right away. One of the main reasons why they accepted so quickly was thanks to Mrs. Keller putting up against everyone in one-on-one matches, none of which I lost. With everything taken care of everyone headed home and I made my final check with the coach.

"The mats are all away and everyone's gone," I reported to who I guess I could consider my boss now.

"That's good. Thanks again Takuya for agreeing to give me a hand. I hope it won't be too much extra work for you," Coach Keller gave me a smile that told me she was glad to have my support, but was now worried that it might interfere with my school work and other activities.

"Naw, I have plenty of extra energy to spend. If you don't need anything else, I'll be heading home now," I smiled reassuringly as I pumped my arms.

"Nope, nothing else. Though tomorrow I'm going to need to see you after school to help me pick who are going to be our starts and our reserves," Coach Keller put her camcorder, which she used to film every match, and clipboard bursting with papers into her bag before hoisting it over her shoulder.

"Sure… see you tomorrow," I did a halfway decent job at hiding my disappointment at the fact that if I had to stay after tomorrow, I would miss going to the Digital World for a second time. However, I couldn't be mad since obligations were obligations.

Speaking of obligations, that's what was on my mind from the minute I left the gym and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. Who was I obligated to call first? Was it Sora since she's my sister? Tai, because he's my best friend? Or Kari because she's now my girlfriend? Great, just what I needed, more stress.

Eventually, my choice was made for me when my cell phone began to ring. "Hey, Kari," I smiled into the phone.

"Takuya," Kari enthusiastically chirped into the phone. She sounded excited for some reason.

"You sound excited. What happened?" I questioned.

"A lot, but I'm mostly excited for you," Kari happily replied.

"For me?" I couldn't understand the why since I hadn't told anyone anything yet.

"Yeah, considering it's you, I'm sure everything went great," her confidence in me made my heart beat faster and brought a big smile to my face.

"Thanks," I rejoined and prepared to tell her about my day. "Well, when I-"

"Not over the phone," Kari insisted and cut me off. "Let's meet at our normal place and have a real talk. Besides, we haven't seen each other all day and I miss you."

"I can't argue with that," I smiled softly at the idea. "I'll see you there."

"Okay," Kari replied before we both hung up.

* * *

><p>I arrived at the secluded garden much faster than I normally did. It wasn't that I ran or anything, it was the fact that I was so charged from being named the assistant coach and that the karate club was actually going to happen, that I was unconsciously walking at a much faster stride. Arriving early afforded me more time to think about what I had been thinking about for a while in the light of who I was meeting up with.<p>

"_It's only three years… I've heard of seniors in high school dating freshman…"_ Last night I had switched from beating myself up over the matter and move onto justifying it with myself.

"Yeah, but your both not in high school and she's the little sister of one of your best friends," I groaned quietly to myself and lay down on the stone bench before I could convince myself. "Why do those two facts bother me so much? And why do they both pale in comparison to the fact that up until that day I thought of her like a little sister."

I gave up on thinking after that and just shut my mind down as I stared up into the light of the sun pouring through the branches of the tree above me. After a few minutes my vision blurred and turned to dark as my mounting exhaustion, accumulated after having to fight upwards of thirty matches, three points each, in the tryouts, took over.

I awoke an unknown amount of time later, but judging by the fact that the bright white light coming through the leaves had turned to a soft orange, I assumed it had been around an hour; enough time for the sun to start setting at least. However, the light wasn't the only change that had occurred while I napped. Now, my head was resting on something soft and warm; something very soft actually. Looking up I found a smiling face shaded by brown hair looking up at the leaves and humming a small tone to herself.

I'll spare myself the comparisons of her to a shimmering angel or some ancient muse that inspired painters and their work, and just admit to what she is; my girlfriend and source of emotional turmoil.

"Hey," I smiled and raised a hand up and ran it through her hair, catching her by surprise.

"Takuya, you scared me. I thought you were still asleep," Kari gazed down at me with her best pouty look; which was difficult to pull off since her eyes were betraying the fact that she was obviously enjoying my hand running through her hair.

"Sorry, but don't you think I should be a bit scared too. Waking up in some lap that I didn't fall asleep in," I playfully teased back.

"I guess… I was surprised that I was able to pick your head up and get under it without you waking up. And on another note, your heads heavy," she chuckled to herself, which only grew louder when I gave her my mock hurt expression.

"I wonder if I was really that tired that I slept right through that," I sighed happily as I relaxed again, enjoying the warmth crawling up my neck and down my shoulders.

"Or maybe you're not on guard around me," Kari looked my face over to see how I reacted to that statement.

During our time in the digital four years ago I had always been the one on permanent guard duty. It wasn't that I was always picked to be the one on duty, but it was kind of like that since I always slept so lightly. I used to wake up every time a twig snapped or some digimon made a sound. Despite how deeply I appear to sleep, my years of martial arts training had made me very alert of my surroundings. The only people who didn't seem to register on my radar were my sister and partner, and now Kari might have been added to that list.

"Maybe…" I yawned and prepared to get up, not wanting to discuss the topic anymore; however, before I could get up Kari grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me back down.

"Can't we talk like this? I'm really enjoying the contact, especially since we don't get much time like this since the others are always around," Kari's eyes begged me to remain as we were.

"Sure," With those eye's looking down at me I couldn't deny her request. I had to wonder if I was already whipped. "So what did I miss today?"

"You first," Kari insisted with her eyes as she gently ran a hand through me hair, returning the sentiment from earlier.

"Why? I'm pretty sure you had the much more interesting day," I countered quizzically.

"That's not true," she rejoined almost too forcefully. "I want to hear all about it. Anyways, I could really do with a break from thinking about the Digital World to help me unwind."

"Are you okay? You're not hurt or anything, are you?" I suddenly felt a wave of shame and guilt wash over me at the fact that I had been so distracted by Kari's abrupt appearance that I hadn't even asked her if she was hurt or tired. She had spent a whole afternoon in the Digital World which is a pretty dangerous place, especially with the Digimon Emperor in the mix.

"I'm fine. There were some close calls, but we all came out of it without a scratch," she reassured me with a gentle smile. "Now back to your day."

"Okay, okay. I'm still sure your story's going to be a lot more interesting than mine, but, oh well," I surrendered before I started into my own story.

As I recounted the tryouts I watched Kari's expression change along with the story. She beamed proudly at me when I told her I was tapped to be the assistant coach. She even commented that even Tai had never been asked to be an assistant coach, which fed my athletic competitive edge with her older brother. During the part where I described my different victories in the sparring matches I noticed a lustful look appear in her eyes. Kari wasn't one who liked violence, but I can't imagine there's any girlfriend who doesn't like the idea that her boyfriends tough. Looking at the enticing reaction I was getting out of her I decided to really play up my descriptions, namely my movements and easy victories, and see how I could make her feel. By the end she looked like she was fighting the urge to attack me, but being the good girl that she was, she was able to suppress it.

"That's amazing Takuya. Congratulations!" She leaned down and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. The romantic sentiment while nice, still dredged up some guilt.

"Thanks, but it's going to mean a lot of extra work and having to stay after school often. Which means less time for the Digital World," I admitted with a sigh at the idea. I never thought the day would come when I'd have to choose school and clubs over the Digital World.

"That's got to be a difficult choice for you, but at least you're being responsible about it. The team and Mrs. Keller seem like they're going to need you if they're going to be ready to compete," she really had a way of lightening my burden and raising my spirits.

"Yeah, thanks. Okay, now it's your turn to share," I finally got to the topic I have been waiting hours to hear about.

"If I have to," she playfully pouted back.

Kari went on to tell me about how Tai had been robbed of his second trip to the Digital World by the sudden appearance of one of our old teachers from middle school. There was a kind smile on her face when she talked about my sister and Izzy meeting up with Biyomon and Tentomon again after so long, it made me kind of jealous of them to be reunited like that. She waxed on in great detail about how Cody and Yolei reacted to their first visit to the Digital World. Apparently it had been going well until they were attacked and scattered about after falling into a big sinkhole. After that Davis had been capture and the two new ones had to hunt down the signals to two digi-eggs. In a temple they found the digi-eggs of love and knowledge, which when they were lifted introduced the two to their partners. Following that was the rescue of Davis and the new Digidestined handing another lose to the Digimon Emperor.

"It seems that your sister's taken a liking to Yolei. And Yolei to her," Kari smiled at the thought.

"Of course she has. My sister's the perpetual big sister to almost everyone," of course I still had my pride as a big brother to defend, even though at times I had to admit she made me feel like the younger one. "Back to your story, it seems that the new recruits held up pretty well for their first time."

"They did at that," Kari smiled weakly, a definite indication that something was wrong.

Looking at her face I knew that her concern was the same as mine. "Are you worried about the fact that we might be out of a job? And reduced to the support staff?"

"Not exactly in those words, but I am worried about that," Kari admitted with little prodding. Her quickness to give up the information was proof that she must have wanted to talk about it for a while now.

"Well, you're not alone in that thought, but something tells me neither one of us is done just yet," I gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure you're right," she seemed to accept it with a stronger smile.

My comment wasn't just an attempt to cheer Kari up or reassure myself. Ever since I had heard that the Digital World was open again, I had this feeling that there was still some unfinished business for the both of us. Looking at Kari now I knew she had a much bigger part to play in the coming battle; and knowing that only made the feeling that the past was coming back at me much stronger. I really hoped that wasn't the case.

"Okay," I finally sat up and stretched my arms and back. "We both need to start heading home or we're going to start getting some calls."

"Right…" Kari sighed as she rubbed her lap a few times before standing up as well.

* * *

><p>Before the sun had gone down I walked Kari to the corner of her apartment building and said goodbye. She requested a quick kiss farewell, which I obliged, hoping that no one from her building would spot us. After that I ran home and arrived just in time for my mother to set dinner down on the table. I had expected dinner to be awkwardly quiet due to the fact that my sister couldn't talk about her day, but I did the good brotherly thing and handled all of the nights talking. They were both excited for my news and my mother even suggested that we go out to eat tomorrow night to celebrate. Of course I was onboard with that. The night was capped off with my sister retelling me everything I had already heard from Kari when our mother went to her room to read a book.<p>

"So what do you think?" She asked once she was done with her story.

"It seems that the new recruits held up pretty well for their first time," I reused the same capping statement I had with Kari. It was the response that seemed the most authentic since it had been once that day. I even made sure to make the same face and gestures I had when I had first used it.

I wasn't one for reusing lines and dialogue, but I couldn't risk another close call like I had during her story. Twice in fact I had almost said something that was ahead of the story; namely almost saying I was jealous of her for finding Biyomon only a few minutes after returning, which hadn't happened yet, and I almost began to speak the name of the two new partner digimon. I could have covered all of it up by saying that Tai had told me everything on the phone, but I really wanted to save that excuse for the future.

"They really did," Sora smiled at me before her expression turned inquisitive. "With your new duties are you going to be able to go to the Digital World tomorrow?"

"Unfortunately, no. Mrs. Keller wants to go over her notes and tapes, and get my input on everyone since I fought each of them. From there we'll have to pick who'll be the starters and who'll be the back ups," I sighed as I slouched back in the recliner.

"Ouch, that's going to be a pain. I've never envied the coaches for having to tell people that they aren't good enough to start and make them benchwarmers," my sister gave me a compassionate smile before picking up the remote before I could and turned the television on.

"Crap… I didn't think about that. When she said that we'd be taking everyone who applied I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to cut anyone that I didn't give feelings about starting status any though. Tomorrows going to suck on multiple levels," I groaned at my own oversight. It's not like it would have stopped me from accepting the job, but it wasn't a thought I wanted in my head right before bed. "Thanks for putting that in my head sis."

"Sorry," she honestly seemed apologetic, which meant I had to accept right away. "Watch some television and try and forget about it."

"That won't be possible with the shows you've been choosing lately," I lamented over her recent viewing preferences. "Seriously, sis, when did you start getting into these fashion shows?"

"I can't really remember," her eyes looked upward in reflective thought, but didn't come back down with anything.

"…" I quietly grumbled as she selected one of the many model/design/runway/who-knows-what shows that were out now and settled in for an hour of boredom until it would be my turn to pick what to watch.

* * *

><p>To be continued…<p> 


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